What you read about Google today is their polished answer to problems from a decade ago—problems you likely don’t have. Why take their medicine for a condition you probably never had?

A young developer asked what’s changed in 30 years of software development. The answer: everything and nothing. We’ve traded assembly for JavaScript, deep understanding for fast results, and writing everything ourselves for assembling things we barely understand. But has the trade been worth it?

There used to be a tribe of us — developers who lived and breathed code, sharing discoveries and debating ideas late into the night. The profession grew, the tribe scattered. We’re still out there. Just harder to find.